Dance

Hi,

Chiang Rai's hot weather can't seem to hold us down. We had another busy weekend. An art show opening, an afternoon at a hillside cottage, dinner at the golf course, and of course Big C.

The 'Old School' song was none other than Elvis singing "Don't Be Cruel". It's time for 'Easy Monday' and I hope you all remember: "__, huh, yeah. What is it good for, absolutely nothin'..." Clue: If you really need a clue, there's a lot of it going on right now.

Saturday morning we had to be at the Rimkok Hotel at 8:30am for several ceremonies. The first one was for the memory of various deceased artists. We don't know what the time span was, but there were eight Buddhist monks seated in front of the audience, and a man who led the chants, seated off to the side. This went on for quite some time. Then there was the presentation of flowers in honor of the birthday of the oldest of the Royal Princesses. Various dignitaries came forward and were handed a bouquet that they placed on a special table. After that some of the artists that were teachers were honored with framed certificates. Then we went upstairs in the hotel, to a large room where more things were handed out and finally, the formal presentation of all of the artwork to a representative of the Provincial Government. It was now time for group pictures of all the artists. Some of the students who participated were given awards for their work, and it was all over.

The evening art opening was held at a place called Rai Maefarluang. It is a beautiful park with a big lake and many very large, old trees. Rai Maefarluang has a permanent installation all about the history of the teak tree. It's very interesting. The artist is an expat from Denmark that we've known for quite some time. He makes collages out of cut-out pictures. Imagine houses pieced together to create a pattern. There was a very large turnout for the event, and he even had the string quartet from the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra playing in the lobby. We had lots of great visits with many friends. One of the highlights was a dramatic photographic portrait of the artist done by our friend Chalit.

Sunday morning we went to Big C for shopping. As I suspected, even with the opening of Central Plaza, folks were still shopping at Big C. The place was humming with people. There are some who questioned the wisdom of putting up a mall across the highway, but lower prices will always attract shoppers.

We got a call from Jaffee asking if we'd like to go up to the cottage of Khun Wim. We'd heard a lot about him from our new friend Bron. She stays in one of the cottages that he rents out. We agreed to go up for a visit and then go to dinner. We followed Jaffee up the main road near our house. It wasn't as far as I thought it would be. We turned onto a dirt road wide enough for one vehicle and went up a hill to a cluster of little houses in the woods. It was like being transported into the mountains. Khun Wim speaks very good English and has a sophistication that caught us by surprise. He used to work for the government, training farmers in new ways to grow new crops. It was part of the program instituted by the Princess Mother years ago to get rid of the opium cultivation. He's also a collector of guitars. He brought out a custom made number that he designed and had made out of Thai woods. We had a fun time and I ended up jamming with a young friend of his who plays in a band. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Khun Wim in the future.

We left the 'party' and went to the old airport golf course for dinner. While we waited for our order, we fooled around with the new billiard table that had recently been installed. Just some silly fun. The food was good and we had one end of the place to ourselves so it was nice.

Today we went to town and got the car washed, had coffee, and bought a new Thai flag for the front of the house. Tomorrow we'll go to Mae Sai to extend my visa, now that I have a new passport.

Have a Great Week.

Peace,
Danny

"Dance to the music of your heart and
the audience will surely applaud."
~Unknown

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style
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